Naoki Kugihara (1952–) is a Japanese social psychologist specializing in group dynamics. After completing doctoral coursework in educational psychology at Kyushu University, he earned a doctorate in educational psychology and held professorships at the Kyushu Institute of Technology, Osaka University, and Higashi Chikushi Junior College. His research examines social loafing in organizations, crowd behavior during emergencies, and the creation of scapegoats. In “Hito wa Naze Shudan ni Naru to Namakeru no ka: ‘Shakaiteki Tenuki’ no Shinrigaku” (“Why Do People Become Lazy in Groups? The Psychology of Social Loafing”), he uses psychological experiments and examples from meetings, classrooms, elections, and sports to explain when individual effort declines within a group and how the problem can be reduced.
